By Erin Rhoda
The Morning Sentinel
JACKMAN, Maine — One man is alive after a woman pulled him from a burning vehicle Sunday.
The man, a passenger in a vehicle that struck a moose on U.S. Route 201 and burst into flames, was seriously injured and flown to a hospital Sunday night. The driver was arrested on a charge of operating under the influence, said Lt. Carl E. Gottardi II, law enforcement division supervisor for the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office.
Emily Anderson, an agriculture specialist with the Department of Homeland Security, was driving north on Route 201 when she saw a van lying on its driver’s side in the ditch, said Jackman-Moose River Fire Chief Bill Jarvis.
Anderson, of Holden, stopped to help and saw Michael Thornton, 49, of Caratunk, hanging out of the windshield.
“I thought he was dead,” she said. “I didn’t know how long ago the accident had happened. It was dark.” She said she could hear voices inside the vehicle, but she did not know how many people were trapped.
When she called 911, the dispatcher told her not to move the man or endanger herself. But then the vehicle burst into flames.
“I started to panic,” she said. "(Dispatch) didn’t want me to go near it, but I thought they were going to burn up.”
The driver, Debra McNinch, 55, of Moscow, managed to climb out on her own, “and she was asking me to help her. She wasn’t able to pull him out,” Anderson said. “I told dispatch I was going to pull him out. So I set the phone down and pulled him out.
“I was scared. Scared for them. Scared for me.”
As she maneuvered Thornton out of the windshield, the back of the vehicle was on fire, as was the passenger side door. Flames reached a couple feet in the air. McNinch was hysterical, she said.
Anderson grabbed Thornton by his armpits and pulled him until he rested on the ground. Then she shifted his weight away from the fire.
“It was extremely hot. I got him far enough...but I couldn’t pull him further,” she said.
Then, an oncoming tractor trailer truck slowed, but passed by the blazing vehicle.
“I felt despair,” she said.
The next vehicle that stopped, however, was one of her co-workers. He helped pull Thornton farther from the flames, she said.
When firefighters arrived shortly after, “the vehicle was burning like crazy,” Jarvis said.
“If Emily had not stopped, I believe (Thornton) would have died in that vehicle fire,” Jarvis said. “Once a vehicle catches on fire, it tends to go pretty quick.”
He said, “There was no question in any of our minds that she saved his life last night.”
McNinch was driving the 1997 Dodge van south on Route 201 -- in a 55 mph zone -- and struck a moose around 7:30 p.m., killing it. The van carried the moose for a distance before the van slipped into the ditch and flipped over, landing on its side, Jarvis said.
Thornton was taken by ambulance to Jackman Regional Health Center with burns and other injuries. A LifeFlight of Maine helicopter then took him to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.
McNinch, the driver, refused medical treatment. She was arrested on an OUI charge.
The fuel line was possibly damaged in the crash, spurring the fire, although it is difficult to pinpoint the exact cause, Jarvis said. Fifteen firefighters responded from Jackman, Moose River and Dennistown Plantation. By the time they reached the scene, there was burning fuel running along the ground.
With Somerset County deputies and Maine State Police, the emergency responders blocked the road, stopping all traffic, Jarvis said. Once firefighters extinguished the blaze and Jackman Regional Health Center’s ambulance departed, they reopened one lane of traffic. After completing reconstruction, police and firefighters left the scene just before 2 a.m.
By Monday evening, Thornton remained in stable condition, Gottardi said.
Deputy Wilfred Dodge and Sgt. Paul York from the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office responded.
“Emily needs an award for being a hero,” Jarvis said. “She may say she doesn’t deserve it, but I think she does. It was her destiny to be there last night.”
Anderson, who has no first aid training, said, “I’m fine. It feels good. I’m just glad that someone showed up. I hope someone would do that for me.”
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